


A Place to Call Home

by RogueWolf



Series: Avenging Drabbles and Oneshots [7]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Cuddling, Gen, safe place, sleepy Avengers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 23:10:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4764518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogueWolf/pseuds/RogueWolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint Barton understood the value of being seen as harmless.</p><p>What he hadn’t expected was for his team to see him as a safe haven as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Place to Call Home

If there was one thing Clint was good at, it was being completely and utterly innocuous. Sure, he could stick an arrow in you from several rooftops away, or kill you before you ever noticed him, but for all of that, most people tended to consider him the most harmless person on the team. Clint didn’t mind, not usually, he preferred being underestimated; being underestimated meant an easier fight for him, meant he could go back to his friends – though they were really his family at this point – and meant that he could protect his family in ways that nobody else could. Clint Barton understood the value of being seen as harmless.

What he hadn’t expected was for his team to see him as a safe haven as well.

He blamed Natasha for it.

It had started during a rainy afternoon, where the sky was covered with dark grey storm clouds and lightning streaked through the sky in a sea of raindrops. It was wild, terrifying, and one of the most soothing storms Clint could remember.

He was curled up in the reading perch in his room, blankets and pillows scattered around and on him, fingers curled tight around his book, when he felt his door swing open. Clint glanced up and watched carefully as Natasha padded into the room. Her hair was braided away from her face, and she gave Clint a sleepy smile before squirming under the blankets and resting her head on his chest.

Clint shook his head and moved his arm so it was resting against her shoulder, his other hand holding his book steady. He felt, more than heard, Natasha sigh, and her body relaxed, the tension of the day draining away in the safe haven that was Clint’s room.

Clint smiled, brushed a hand over her hair, and then went back to his book.

***

Three chapters later and Clint was just getting to the first action scene when his door swung open again, and Bucky stood there, looking at him wide-eyed, his hair a wild, tangled mess around his pale face. Clint glanced up and then jerked his head, and Bucky spilled into the room, clawing his way to Clint’s side, somehow rolling himself up in a blanket as he did. He shivered against Clint, the after effects of one of his frequent nightmares, and Clint just rested his free arm gently across Bucky’s back, still reading his book.

Bucky didn’t do anything for almost an hour, and Clint did nothing except read his book and alternate between brushing a hand across each assassin’s head, slow and calming, grounding. Bucky gradually settled, and Clint could feel his soft breaths, even and hot, against his leg as he started to drift to sleep.

Natasha hadn’t even stirred on his other side, trusting Clint completely. He felt the corners of his mouth quirk up, though, when he noticed that she had let her arm fall across his lap to hold onto Bucky’s flesh hand. Bucky, no longer the Winter Soldier, was holding hers back, his eyes closed in dreamless sleep.

Clint smiled down at them both and then turned the page.


End file.
